Twyla Tharp

In the field of art, to be able to have lunch with Kirk Varnedoe is thrilling. I met him at Si and Victoria Newhouse’s dinner one night. Barnett Newman’s widow was there. That’s the part of me that’s a fan. Like when I was a kid and went to the Brooklyn Paramount. Well, my interest has expanded, and it’s not just rock-and-roll.

Can anybody be given creativity? No. Only equipment to develop it if it’s in them in the first place.

I hope the Guggenheim plan will be revived.

Nothing will stop you from being creative so effectively as the fear of making a mistake.

I think of art as the highest level of creativity. To me, it is one of the greatest sources of enjoyment.

From my point of view, which is that of a storyteller, I see your life as already artful, waiting, just waiting and ready for you to make it art.

I don’t know where I’m going from here, but I promise it won’t be boring.

The arts are at the center of a nation’s purpose and a test of civilization.

An artist can only be evaluated after he’s dead. At the 11th hour he might do something that will eclipse everything else.

They decided to establish a museum of modern art where works by contemporary artists would be shown. Mother was viewed as a very progressive person, and not everybody liked the paintings she bought.

Go a little bit out of your depth. And when you don’t feel that your feet are quite touching the bottom, you’re just about in the right place to do something exciting.

If you hold onto the beauty and inspiration and the clarity that is music, you will have an anchor, you will not be too far swayed by what the world is.

Everybody has that feeling when they look at a work of art and it’s right, that sudden familiarity, a sort of…recognition, as though they were creating it themselves, as though it were being created through them while they look at it or listen to it.

Without art, the crudeness of reality would make the world unbearable.

He knows all about art, but he doesn’t know what he likes.